WRITE

Use WRITE to display messages on the workstation screen when a user logs in.

WRITE has the following command format:

WRITE "[text][%identifier]" [;][identifier]

Replace text with the words you want to display on the screen.

Replace identifier with a variable you want to display, such as a user's login name. (See ``Using identifier variables'' for a complete list of variables.)

Text you want to display must be enclosed in quotation marks (`` '').

There are several ways to display variables in the text message. The way you enter the variable in the WRITE command determines the display format, as follows:

• If you type the identifier variable exactly as shown, with no special punctuation, only the variable is displayed on the screen. (See ``Login Script Identifier Variables'' in ``Login script identifier variables''.)

• If you enclose the identifier variable inside quotation marks, then precede the variable by typing a percent sign (%) and type the text in uppercase letters, both the variable and the text are displayed on the screen.

  This method is often used to combine regular text with an identifier variable because both the text and the variable can be enclosed in the same quotation marks.

If you have several WRITE commands, each one appears on a separate line on your workstation. However, if you put a semicolon at the end of all but the last WRITE command, the commands appear as one continuous sentence or paragraph (although they may wrap onto additional lines on the workstation's screen).

Text strings can include the special characters in the following list:

\r

makes a carriage return occur

\n

starts a new line of the text

\"

displays a quotation mark on the screen

\7

makes a beep sound

In addition to the semicolon, there are other operators you can use to form compound strings (in other words, to join text and identifier variables into one command). These operators are listed in the following list in order of precedence.

/ %

multiply, divide, modulos

+ -

add, subtract

>> <<

shift left or right (1000 >> 3 becomes 1)

For example:

• To display the message ``Hello'',add the following line to the login script:

  WRITE "Hello"
  

• To display the user's last name (surname) along with a greeting, add the identifier LAST_NAME to the command. To do this, either join the text and the identifier with a semicolon or include the variable in the quotation marks with the text.

  Either of the following lines displays ``Hello, Smith'' when user Bob Smith logs in:

  WRITE "Hello, ";%LAST_NAME
  WRITE "Hello, %LAST_NAME"
  

• To make a beep sound occur while the phrase ``Good morning'' appears on the screen, add the following line to the login script:

  WRITE "Good %GREETING_TIME \7"